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New Zealand's top paddler Ben Fouhy parted company with the rest of the Olympic squad two weeks ago - but insists he's ready to go one better than his Athens silver medal in Beijing.
Fouhy decided he needed time away from the New Zealand group when they were rounding off Games preparations in Rockhampton, Queensland.
So he headed home to clear his head and freshen up ahead of his Beijing challenge.
And last night he scotched rumours of rifts with New Zealand's coaching duo, former Olympic greats Paul MacDonald and Ian Ferguson.
K1 1000m specialist Fouhy will join the rest of the squad - K2 1000m men Mike Walker and Steven Ferguson, and K1 500m paddler Erin Taylor - in Sydney on Saturday to fly to China.
He began working with MacDonald before the squad headed for Europe in April and has spent plenty of time with four-time gold medallist Ferguson, going back to his world championship victory in 2003.
But he has overseen his own preparations on previous European trips. However the 29-year-old said that should not be misunderstood.
"I'm quite independent. I've naturally always been that way," he said last night.
"I grew up in Taumarunui and did not get into the sport through the surf scene. I've always trained on my own, that's how I learned [canoeing]."
The suggestion that he had turned his back on MacDonald and Ian Ferguson's tutelage was baloney.
"I'd be silly not to listen to them. Without Ferg I wouldn't have been an Olympic silver medallist or world champion," he said.
Fouhy felt staying in Rockhampton would not have further enhanced his physical conditioning and he needed a change of scenery.
His last European campaign had been patchy, with ordinary results and he did not enjoy it.
The squad arrive in Beijing on Sunday and Fouhy hits the water when the heats begin on August 17.
